Söderman demands Council code of conduct

Date: 03/05/01

By John Shelley

The EU citizen's watchdog has written to the Council of Ministers demanding urgent action over the introduction of a code of good conduct for its staff.

Ombudsman Jacob Söderman has told Council Secretary General Javier Solana that he must inform him of progress on putting in place a code of good administrative behaviour before the end of June.

The Council is the only remaining major EU institution not to have adopted a code governing the way its officials deal with the public.

"Mr Söderman hopes that the Council of the European Union will now follow the lead set by the Commission and Parliament by adopting a code before the summer," said a spokesman for the Ombudsman.

Söderman began his campaign to get EU institutions to adopt codes of good conduct in November 1998.

When none of them responded, Söderman sent them a model code which included regulations requiring officials to avoid discrimination and abuse of power, to be objective and impartial and to reply to correspondence in a reasonable time limit.

"Although both the Parliament and the Commission have adopted codes that fall slightly short of the Ombudsman's recommendations, their codes are nevertheless an important step forward," said the spokesman.

Of the ten smaller Union agencies eight have also adopted a code of good conduct. The Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee have also still to adopt such rules.

The EU citizens' watchdog has written to the Council of Ministers demanding urgent action over the introduction of a code of good conduct for its staff.